Philanthropicomathematica 101
In this season of giving, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a working stiff to get a 35% charitable deduction, but the rich can do that on Schedule A of Form 1040, no problem.
And what miracles have their gifts enabled for the needy recipients? Robert Reich, labor secretary under Clinton, has estimated that only 10% or so of charitable gifts go to the people who desperately need the help.
Sounds like inverted tithing.
Philanthropy in 2009 totaled $300 billion, according to David Nasaw, writing in The Nation — $250 billion of it coming from individuals and estate bequests, and 70% of that ($175 billion) from affluent individuals.
Well, good for them. Everyone approves of charity, especially their CPAs. But if Reich is right, only a tenth of that amount reached the truly needy. The poor got less than a third as much help as religious organizations and considerably less than education. Education is good, too, and well might the champagne still be flowing in Cambridge, where last year Harvard took in $600 million to add to its $30 billion endowment. You’re never too rich for a handout.
Let’s see now. The poor got a badly needed $17.5 billion ($292 apiece, by my arithmetic), and the affluent deducted $61.5 billion from their taxes.
Somehow the federal government has to make up for that $61.5 billion they’re not getting in tax revenues. Guess who’s going to pay that.
Congratulations on your generosity to the Harvard Endowment.
Sorry about your name getting left out of their annual report, but that’s the way it goes. With the help of your tax subsidy, somebody else’s name also got carved into stone on the new wing of a church you don’t attend and of a private school you can’t afford to send your kids to.
In heaven, however, your name is writ in gold, and the good book says those plumply humped camels — their philanthropy notwithstanding — are never going to squeeze through the eye of that needle to see it.